For more than 30 years, I have charted the rise and fall of the UK demolition industry. It is an industry that is constantly in motion and in a continuous state of change and flux. So rapid is that change that DemolitionNews evolved from updates once or twice a week to six and seven days…Read moreRead more
Comment
What have you done for me lately…?
Don’t blame the undertaker
Have you ever been to a funeral during which it has been suggested that the undertaker was, in some way, responsible for the demise of the deceased? Of course you haven’t; such a preposterous notion would be out of place even in a particularly far-fetched Agatha Christie novel. And yet that is precisely the logic…Read moreRead more
The most dangerous phrase in the demolition business
“We’ve always done it that way”. Is there a more dangerous phrase in the demolition business? Is there a phrase that more accurately describes entrenched ideas and beliefs. Is there a single sentence that better sums up a refusal to move with the times; to adapt; and to overcome? First of all, the phrase is…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Still talking while under attack
Picture the scene. The cowboys have gathered on a wide open plain where they are vulnerable to attack from all sides. There was some initial discussion of wagon circling but that seemed like a lot of hard work, so now those wagons are just strewn about the place offering no protection. A large fire in…Read moreRead more
How times change…
83 years ago this week, the German Luftwaffe began its Blitzkreig on London. The UK capital was bombed systematically for 56 of the following 57 nights. In the air, the British response was swift with the Royal Air Force locked in a bloody battle to regain air superiority in the nation’s skies. With buildings destroyed,…Read moreRead more
Opinion – What a waste
I’d like you to imagine a young demolition or construction worker. They are green, and have no experience. I’d like you to imagine that person as a large but empty glass bowl (and if anyone has seen the new Oppenheimer movie, you will know precisely where I stole this metaphor). Every time that person attends…Read moreRead more
An empty seat at the table
The venue is appropriately grand for a discussion of such magnitude; a vast oak-panelled room with a preposterously high ceiling. On the walls are oil paintings of venerable luminaries from the past. Their faces may be unfamiliar but their names and their accomplishments have echoed down the ages. From the magnificent ceiling is slung a…Read moreRead more
The sound of silence
Whether it is the Didcot Disaster or the loss of red diesel; the CMA investigation or concerns over embedded carbon, the UK demolition industry’s response is always the same.
Opinion – A lack of joined-up thinking
Regardless of how you voted in the Brexit referendum back in June 2016, I think we can all agree that – for the demolition and construction industry, at least – the outcome was a disaster. It was like we collectively pulled out a shotgun, aimed at our foot, and pulled the trigger. In an instant,…Read moreRead more
Comment – Holding us back
I recently had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s foremost demolition contractors.Despe is the Gold Standard of demolition. A winner of multiple World Demolition Awards, the Italian company is a high watermark for all things demolition. The company operates at a standard to which others can only aspire. But for every Bugatti Veyron,…Read moreRead more
